A DISTRICT judge yesterday imposed an anonymity order on reporters covering a drug remand case before him in the Magistrates’ Court in Derry.
Under the terms of the order, the media cannot report either the names or addresses of three men arrested in Derry last Friday afternoon following the discovery of £150,000 of cannabis in a house at Blackthorn Manor and in a car parked outside the same house in the Waterside area of the city.
In making the order, District Judge Barney McElholm did not directly refer to the paramilitary organisation Republican Action Against Drugs. Over the past two years, this group has claimed responsibility for murdering one man and shooting almost 40 others allegedly involved in illegal drug activities on both sides of the Border.
Mr McElholm referred only to “certain criminal elements in society” he believed used media reports to establish the identity “of certain people”.
Before yesterday’s court appearance of the three men, aged 44, 30 and 21, Mr McElholm ordered that the courtroom be cleared of the public with the exception of relatives of the three defendants.
He said he had researched the law and higher court rulings in relation to anonymity orders and he believed that, in relation to the defendants’ right to life under European legislation, it was appropriate for him to impose the order.
Mr McElholm further ordered that the date of the defendants’ next video-link court appearance not be reported.
A detective constable told the court that last Friday members of the PSNI’s Organised Crime Branch searched a house and car at Blackthorn Manor.
Inside the car they found 5kg of cannabis and inside the house they found a further 2kg of cannabis and nine bricks of cannabis resin.
The officers also found £19,000 in bundled notes inside a mobile safe in the house.
The officer said one of the defendants was arrested at the scene and the other two were arrested at addresses on the city side.
Refusing bail, the District judge said the only way to tackle such serious offending was “to hit the enterprise where it hurt”.
He remanded all three defendants in custody for a video-link remand hearing on a date which, under the terms of the anonymity order, cannot be reported.
A barrister for the PSNI applied for a six-month detention order for the £19,000.
The unopposed order was granted.